The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

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Sunday, February 7, 2016

Facebook's War on Freedom of Speech - Douglas Murray

by Douglas Murray

Facebook is now removing
speech that presumably almost everybody might decide is racist -- along
with speech that only someone at Facebook decides is "racist."

The sinister reality of a society in which the expression of
majority opinion is being turned into a crime has already been seen
across Europe. Just last week came reports of Dutch citizens being
visited by the police and warned about posting anti-mass-immigration
sentiments on social media.

In lieu of violence, speech is one of the best ways for people to
vent their feelings and frustrations. Remove the right to speak about
your frustrations and only violence is left.

The lid is being put on the pressure cooker at precisely the
moment that the heat is being turned up. A true "initiative for civil
courage" would explain to both Merkel and Zuckerberg that their policy
can have only one possible result.

It was only a few weeks ago that Facebook was forced to back down when caught permitting anti-Israel postings, but censoring equivalent anti-Palestinian postings.

Now one of the most sinister stories of the past year was hardly even
reported. In September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Mark
Zuckerberg of Facebook at a UN development summit in New York. As they
sat down, Chancellor Merkel's microphone, still on, recorded Merkel asking Zuckerberg
what could be done to stop anti-immigration postings being written on
Facebook. She asked if it was something he was working on, and he
assured her it was.

At the time, perhaps the most revealing aspect of this exchange was
that the German Chancellor -- at the very moment that her country was
going through one of the most significant events in its post-war history
-- should have been spending any time worrying about how to stop public
dislike of her policies being vented on social media. But now it
appears that the discussion yielded consequential results.

Last month, Facebook launched what it called an "Initiative for civil courage online,"
the aim of which, it claims, is to remove "hate speech" from Facebook
-- specifically by removing comments that "promote xenophobia." Facebook
is working with a unit of the publisher Bertelsmann, which aims to
identify and then erase "racist" posts from the site. The work is
intended particularly to focus on Facebook users in Germany. At the
launch of the new initiative, Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl
Sandberg, explained that, "Hate speech has no place in our society --
not even on the internet." She went to say that, "Facebook is not a
place for the dissemination of hate speech or incitement to violence."
Of course, Facebook can do what it likes on its own website. What is
troubling is what this organization of effort and muddled thinking
reveals about what is going on in Europe.

The mass movement of millions of people -- from across Africa, the
Middle East and further afield -- into Europe has happened in record
time and is a huge event in its history. As events in Paris, Cologne and Sweden have shown, it is also by no means a series of events only with positive connotations.

As well as being fearful of the security implications of allowing in
millions of people whose identities, beliefs and intentions are unknown
and -- in such large numbers -- unknowable, many Europeans are deeply
concerned that this movement heralds an irreversible alteration in the
fabric of their society. Many Europeans do not want to become a melting
pot for the Middle East and Africa, but want to retain something of
their own identities and traditions. Apparently, it is not just a
minority who feel concern about this. Poll after poll shows a
significant majority of the public in each and every European country
opposed to immigration at anything like the current rate.

The sinister thing about what Facebook is doing is that it is now
removing speech that presumably almost everybody might consider racist
-- along with speech that only someone at Facebook decides is "racist."

And it just so happens to turn out that, lo and behold, this idea of
"racist" speech appears to include anything critical of the EU's current
catastrophic immigration policy.

By deciding that "xenophobic" comment in reaction to the crisis is
also "racist," Facebook has made the view of the majority of the
European people (who, it must be stressed, are opposed to Chancellor
Merkel's policies) into "racist" views, and so is condemning the
majority of Europeans as "racist." This is a policy that will do its
part in pushing Europe into a disastrous future.

Because even if some of the speech Facebook is so scared of is in
some way "xenophobic," there are deep questions as to why such speech
should be banned. In lieu of violence, speech is one of the best ways
for people to vent their feelings and frustrations. Remove the right to
speak about your frustrations, and only violence is left. Weimar Germany
-- to give just one example -- was replete with hate-speech laws
intended to limit speech the state did not like. These laws did nothing
whatsoever to limit the rise of extremism; it only made martyrs out of
those it pursued, and persuaded an even larger number of people that the
time for talking was over.

The sinister reality of a society in which the expression of majority
opinion is being turned into a crime has already been seen across
Europe. Just last week, reports from the Netherlands
told of Dutch citizens being visited by the police and warned about
posting anti-mass-immigration sentiments on Twitter and other social
media.

In this toxic mix, Facebook has now -- knowingly or unknowingly --
played its part. The lid is being put on the pressure cooker at
precisely the moment that the heat is being turned up. A true
"initiative for civil courage" would explain to both Merkel and
Zuckerberg that their policy can have only one possible result.

Douglas Murray, a British writer, journalist and commentator, is based in London, England.Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7371/facebook-freedom-of-speech Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.